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Now That He's Screwed Us For the 58th Time...

Welcome to Hope n' Change 2.0!

In the face of a collapsing economy, rampant unemployment, and global instability, Barack Hussein Obama took office in 2008 promising Hope and Change. The "Hope" thing didn't really work out, but we got plenty of "Change" as everything got worse. And now, the jug-eared jackass has a second term.

That's why at Hope n' Change Cartoons, we're creating conservative smartaleckry to provide a little laughter in these strange times. Cartoons will probably be posted Monday and Wednesday, and definitely on Friday. Additionally, cartoons and graphics will be posted randomly on our Facebook page and Friday we'll add the week's postings right here to kick around in one of the greatest comments sections on the Web.Note: please feel free to repost our cartoons on your favorite blogs!

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Saturday, May 8, 2010

Click Cartoon for Larger SizeThe mainstream media is going through some astoundingly painful contortions to find a reason, any reason, that admitted Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad attempted to kill innocent Americans...other than being an Islamic radical.

CNN was one of many alleged news outlets opining that the heartbreak of a mortgage foreclosure caused Shahzad to, very understandably, attempt to blow New Yorkers to hell and gone. Of course, they're conveniently ignoring the fact that Shahzad quit his job, stopped making house payments, and instead used his funds to make repeated trips to Pakistan for terror training.

Meanwhile, CBS takes a broader view, opining that Shahzad packed his car with explosives because "the American Dream" failed him. Right. It's not Shahzad who's at fault...it's our country that sucks!Since these supposed news outlets are doing such a bad job of making crap up, we'd like to offer them some other stupid hypotheses to try out. Maybe Shahzad was incensed to discover that Obamacare won't really lower his medical expenses. Maybe he was crestfallen that jobs "unexpectedly" failed to grow for about the umpteenth month in a row. Maybe he was angry because Happy Meal toys cause childhood obesity. Maybe he can't live in a world that only has 3 more episodes of "Lost."

Or maybe, just maybe, Faisal Shahzad is an Islamic radical who simply wanted to kill as many Americans as possible. But then, that wouldn't be news, would it?

You are on to something here - when the media gets "creative" with explanations like this, we need to add to the pile of BS with our own creative explanations. You have hit the nail on the head several times.

I think I will contribute the following: It was an act of despair caused by the gradual realization that this promised "hope & "change" may not happen anytime soon.

An observation. When we had just three network news channels, Paul Harvey, eight to ten real newspapers, Newsweek and Time...it was really simple to stick to the real story.

Now, they have to be different and create fake stuff out of real stuff...to be different. Thats the only way to attract viewers.

We faked folks enough to believe Elvis lives. We faked them enough to make them believe in Bigfoot. We faked them enough to believe that Hope and Change exists. We faked them enough to believe a President might be a foreign born citizen. So on and on it goes.

Our compass is broke. Our news system can't tell a simple story in a simple fashion. And behind it all is some agenda by some group who wants things to work their way with fake news as part of the effort.

We might as well turn the TV off. Cancel the newspaper subscription....and go fishing. We aren't getting anything worth discussing.

All of this estrogen-laced navel gazing could also be a distraction from the fact that Obama is increasingly using drones to kill Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That makes this Obama's war. The MSM mantra has long supported Obama in blaming Bush for everything wrong in the universe. I guess it's hard for them to change gears.

Readers- outstanding comments! And it will be fun to hear more of your inventive reasons for Shahzad's act, even though we now know that he did it "to impress Jodie Foster."

Letters from Ripley- Great post. You're absolutely right that when there were fewer news outlets, we oxymoronically got more "news" because there was neither the competitive element (causing sensationalizing of news), or the unblinking eye of 24/7 news services that have to fill every moment by saying something, no matter how inane. There used to be a difference between "news" and "commentary," and another distinction between "commentary" and "mindless and partisan babbling." Now...not so much.

Anonymous- "estrogen-laced navel gazing" would make a good slogan for the mainstream media! And you're right that Obama's use of predator drones (one of the few demonstrably good things this president has either done, or at least allowed to continue) is far more likely to be a causative factor in Shahzad's act than any of the touchy-feely stuff we've been hearing. When you think about it, use of the predator drones is an act of war, as was the placement of the car bomb in Times Square. But since the mainstream media doesn't want to admit that there is a war between western culture and Islamic radicalism, or that this president is engaged in it, they have no choice but to fill the airwaves with meaningless and misleading fictions.

Readers- For those who don't know, some Islamic scholars now believe that due to translation errors in the Koran, martyrs won't be getting 72 virgins in the afterlife, but will get 72 raisins instead. Then again, maybe they're just really wrinkly virgins.

I am CONVINCED he tried to do the deed in order to qualify for a new car loan based on "unexpectedly" finding himself without a vehicle, once the blast occurred. Makes as much sense as the last 12 months of "unexpectedly" rotten economic news.

"In August, 2001, the American television channel CBS aired an interview with a Hamas activist Muhammad Abu Wardeh, who recruited terrorists for suicide bombings in Israel. Abu Wardeh was quoted as saying: "I described to him how God would compensate the martyr for sacrificing his life for his land. If you become a martyr, God will give you 70 virgins, 70 wives and everlasting happiness." Wardeh was in fact shortchanging his recruits since the rewards in Paradise for martyrs was 72 virgins."

Clearly Faisal was upset when he found out that this Wardeh guy was SKIMMING VIRGINS!! (Not that it's not a great plan.)

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